Hollywood is certainly into space travel these days. You may have heard about a certain little movie about galaxies far, far away that is set to open this week? It has been a long wait for Star Wars fans, but the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens is finally here, and in all likelihood will…
I’ll admit it straight out –I have a bit of fondness for some of Shonda Rhimes’ television shows, which made me want to pick up her new book Year of Yes. Year of Yes is Shonda reflecting on the year she spent saying “yes!” to everything that scared her. She faces her fears head on…
Bill Hodges has recently retired from a long career as a highly decorated police detective and to say that retirement doesn’t agree with him would be quite an understatement. So when someone claiming to be the Mercedes Killer, the one big case he never cracked, contacts him, he feels he must follow the trail. The…
It’s time once again for my fifth annual Holiday Reads blog post. This is my attempt to spread holiday cheer by recommending heartwarming books with happy endings. Who wants to read anything depressing in December? It’s Christmastime! So here we go. The Gift of a Charm by Melissa Hill Irish author Hill creates a romantic,…
I think I have a new favorite mystery heroine: Tannie Maria, from Recipes for Love and Murder. (“Tannie” is the polite way to address a woman older than you in South Africa, kind of like calling someone “auntie”). She is naïve but intelligent, vulnerable yet strong, and one of the best fictional cooks around! And…
Happy Black Friday! Thanksgiving is officially over, and the winter holiday season is upon us. So many people spend today shopping for their loved ones as an initiation of the holiday season. Today is a day where the value of material goods gets tangled up in our love for others as we determine the best…
Boulevard Monmartre, Paris by Camille Pissarro Alice Hoffman digs up a little piece of history and imagines an amazing love story about the parents of Jacobo Camille Pissarro, one of the greatest painters of all time. Pissarro, who is regarded as one of the fathers of the impressionism and Camille Pissarro post-impressionism movement, was born…
Type-A Ana can’t wait to lead her quiz bowl team to victory. Ana’s a rule follower, everything must be precise and by the book. Zak enjoys goofing off and role-playing games. When Zak’s shenanigans land him on the quiz bowl team as penance, Ana is livid. The quiz bowl semifinals force Zak to miss his…
The final movie in the Hunger Games saga - Mockingjay Part 2 opens in theaters next week. The Hunger Games is a bestselling book series with blockbuster movies to match. If you’ve read all the books and seen the movies and still need something to cure your craving try one of these similar books: Proxy…
Some books resonate with us long after we’ve finished reading them. M. T. Anderson’s Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad is one such book for me. In 1989 I visited Leningrad and that trip still haunts me. It haunts me because the first thing I remember seeing…
